Writing on the Wall
by Lucathia Rykatu
Summary: All Lelouch leaves behind are notches on the wall.


Writing on the Wall

by Lucathia

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass and make no money from this piece of fanwork.

Notes: This is set post R2 and was written for 31_days on livejournal for the October 18 theme, I wrote on a wall, "I've gone ahead."

* * *

The little crosses were still there on the wall, the last one a mere line, one stroke short of becoming a cross. She was the only one left who knew how they had come about, how those little crosses were the last physical reminder of Lelouch's struggle to understand the geass that she had bestowed on him. The rest of the world thought Lelouch knew his power thoroughly. He had thought so too, but even with all his experiments, there was still much he didn't understand.

The female student Lelouch had commanded to carve notches into the wall hadn't stopped even after Lelouch was long gone from supervising her work. Despite how long she kept at it, the student had stopped at one point; however, C.C. couldn't tell if it were because the female student wasn't at the school anymore--either because she had died or she had already graduated--or if Lelouch's geass had finally worn off.

C.C. ran her hand against the last line. The geass on Schneizel was still effective, so Lelouch's death wasn't what had stopped the student from coming. But if Lelouch's geass had worn off because of time, then someone needed to keep an eye on Schneizel. The only way to determine why the little crosses had stopped multiplying would be to track the student down to see if she were still alive, but C.C. could care less.

It wasn't her job to babysit the world.

"You should have left something more interesting for me to pass the time than some notches on the wall," muttered C.C. as she donned her straw hat and turned her back on the academy.

Despite her words, when C.C. came across Zero during her travels years after Lelouch's death, she immediately took a shot at him. The masked man spun out of the bullet's way in a speed that no normal human could possibly move at without the help of an otherworldly command. Besides, C.C. doubted he had even known he had been shot at. If not for the geass, he'd have at least a cracked mask if not some more serious injury.

"I take it the geass for you to live is still in effect," she said.

"You could have just asked and I would have told you," came the distorted reply from behind the mask.

"That's not nearly as satisfying."

She made sure Zero knew to keep an eye on Schneizel. Although she was dead bored, she didn't want another war to break out. Pizza was much easier to come by now that there was world peace and her favorite chain was propagating like crazy.

C.C. was enjoying a delicious slice of cheese pizza in the most northern part of Japan when she came across what people in that area called "The Wall." The entire wall was filled from top to bottom with tiny little cross marks. She took a good minute to chew.

So the "student" was still at it, just in a different location.

That brought up a whole different set of implications.

She wasn't worried about Schneizel anymore, not that she had even done much about her suspicions. As long as Zero was around, Schneizel wasn't a problem. She had a feeling that Zero would be around for a long, long time unless he caught on to what she suspected.

One by one, people who knew of the island as Area 11 passed on. Yes, even the poor student Lelouch had commanded to carve those notches on the wall, the poor girl who continued at it even when she wasn't physically at the academy anymore, passed on, finally freed from drawing those little crosses. Soon, people would forget entirely that the island once had its name stripped away, that the people had once been called numbers, that there was once a princess who had massacred anyone who was Japanese, or that there was once a demonic emperor who had sought to enslave the entire world for the world's good.

She was supposed to be the only one left. But when even Nunnally, the youngest of them all who remembered, died of old age, Zero was still there.

And the man behind the mask hadn't changed.

His geass wouldn't let him die. He couldn't die.

C.C. didn't know how he looked behind the mask now--he must be a gnarled old man, ought to have a bent back and weak knees and everything, but the mask and the cape hid it all. He never took it off. He still walked straight and tall, his kicks as deadly as ever, albeit slower than before. The geass kept him alive, but it didn't keep him young. Every time his heart was on the verge of giving out, the red rings around his irises kicked in, and his heart would start again. The reach of the geass went much farther than anyone had anticipated. Even his mind refused to seek death when death would have been kinder.

"I need to find Jeremiah," he had told her.

_I need to find a way to cancel the geass._

She helped him--how could she not? She would never wish immortality on anyone. She could never bring herself to pass it on. His was a brand even worse than hers. At least she remained young and beautiful. He did not, but no one could tell.

She began carving a notch onto the wall at the academy whenever she passed by and still couldn't help Zero break free of the geass. The little crosses continued multiplying until they stretched across the entire perimeter of the school, until not one bit of wall remained free from the marks. Hers was no geass but rather human volition, stronger than any geass that ever existed.

When Zero saw her handiwork, she only smiled, amused that their roles had reversed. Although Lelouch had only left her writing on the wall, she had not been alone. For that, she was grateful.

When she had her back to Zero and could only see him from the corner of her eyes, sometimes, she could pretend.

* * *

the end


End file.
